Hilton launches (another) new hotel brand – Spark

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• C says:

  14 Jan14 January 06:03

  If they made excellent quality coffee, juice and bagel (freshly roasted, squeezed and baked) their USP they could be onto a winner here.

  It wouldn’t be too hard to put a bean-to-cup coffee machine and orange juicer into every hotel.

  • Blenz101 says:

    14 Jan14 January 06:08

    Given the US focus it will be cheap stale drip coffee and at this end of the market the juice will be from a carton poured into a dispenser.

    Guess it will open up lots of mattress run opportunities in the US though if you can pay motel prices for your nights and stay credits.

    • John says:

      14 Jan14 January 08:37

      The bagels in the US are extremely terrible at brands such as Best Western, Holiday Inn Express, or Comfort Inn.

      Remember Spark will be Hilton’s lowest-budget brand, positioned in the Economy segment. As such, it is positioned below Best Western (Midscale), Holiday Inn Express (Upper Midscale), and Comfort Inn (Upper Midscale). It will also positioned below Hilton brands such as Tru by Hilton (Midscale), Hampton by Hilton (Upper Midscale), Motto (Upper Midscale), and Home2Suites by Hilton (Upper Midscale). Instead, Spark will compete with the likes of Days Inn, Econo Lodge, Red Roof Inn, and Microtel Inn & Suites.

      • Roy says:

        15 Jan15 January 02:52

        If all the brands you mention are midscale, can you give me an example of an, erm, “downscale” brand (or whatever comes below midscale)? FWIW in the article on Hilton Honors Rob describes Hampton as “a budget brand with free breakfast”.

        • John says:

          15 Jan15 January 07:02

          @Roy: The industry standard classification scheme goes as follows:

          economy – midscale – upper midscale – upscale – upper upscale – luxury.

          There is no ‘downscale’, the lowest classification commonly used is economy which, of course, means (low-)budget.

        • Roy says:

          15 Jan15 January 12:32

          Oh, so “midscale” (is that really even a word?) actually means “second category from the bottom”? i.e. what the rest of us would describe as “budget”. And “upper upscale”? Ugh, that’s just meaningless word salad.

          Thanks for the explanation, though.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      14 Jan14 January 10:01

      Assuming stays qualify at 100% or either- certainly IBIS budget and below (yes there’s a below albeit F1 only exists in France I think) do my qualify for 100%, IHG brands earn fewer points/$ for example

      • Blenz101 says:

        14 Jan14 January 12:23

        Fine for points earning but Hilton elite status is based on number of nights / stays achieved. Don’t really see how you can credibly award fractions of a night or stay.

• Alex G says:

  14 Jan14 January 06:12

  The number of Hilton brands is already ridiculous and confusing. The last thing we need is more of them.

• The Savage Squirrel says:

  14 Jan14 January 06:40

  “Hilton claims that Spark will bring ‘consistency’, which is the factor it feels is missing from the economy end of the hotel market at present”

  Amusing criticism. It’s a few years ago but from my more youthful budget travels I sampled plenty, and I’d say the likes of Motel6 and Super8, if they do only one thing, do consistency (as do Premier Inn in the UK). In fact they do it far better than Hilton brands do…

• Adam says:

  14 Jan14 January 06:51

  What’s the difference between Spark and Tru?

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    14 Jan14 January 10:02

    Energising artwork I reckon

  • John says:

    14 Jan14 January 13:20

    Tru will be more expensive than Spark. Also, in difference to Tru, Spark is a conversion-only brand (no new builts, just renovations of existing hotels/motels with 100-120 beds to meet the Spark brand standard).

  • Bagoly says:

    14 Jan14 January 14:19

    Full marks to the branding department for created logos with colours that appropriately shout “cheap”.

• johnny_c-l says:

  14 Jan14 January 07:49

  I hope they provide a chair for the multi-purpose swinging work tables, that stool in the picture isn’t going to cut it!

• Peter says:

  14 Jan14 January 08:15

  It seems Hilton has an overstaffed/underemployed marketing department.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    14 Jan14 January 10:03

    Would be the product department dreaming this up

• Peter says:

  14 Jan14 January 08:26

  I am too uptight to use a rocking chair in public. Will they be in the rooms or the public areas? Either way, this being a brand focused on the US, I can only imagine the amount of litigation all those rocking chair accidents will lead to!

  • Bagoly says:

    14 Jan14 January 14:18

    As it was dreamed up in the US, I expect it’s inspired by Grandpa’s sedate rocking chair on the verandah somewhere in the South.

• Alex W says:

  14 Jan14 January 08:28

  I went to the Accor website to see how many brands I could recognise and there are now 54 😱

  • Rob says:

    14 Jan14 January 08:38

    Not all in ALL though.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      14 Jan14 January 08:54

      So it’s possible that Hilton might not have this hotel chain as part of the loyalty scheme to keep costs down. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a good idea to have ‘by Hilton’ on their cheapest brands because not everyone understands where in the lineup each brand fits and the more they have they more confusing it gets

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        14 Jan14 January 10:04

        This is particularly challenging with the slate of Hilton’s downgrading to Doubletree because they’re too crap to keep Hilton branding.

        The ‘by Hilton’ leads to people I speak to referring to them as Hilton which is damaging to the brand IMO

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          14 Jan14 January 10:23

          Many people talk about the ‘Hilton DoubleTree’ and because brand descriptions are all wishy washy marketing bollocks sometimes it’s difficult to know what fits where even if you read the official descriptions of the brand. Prices aren’t always even a clue like when the Hampton Waterloo is often more expensive that better hotels due to the convenient location to the station.

        • Blenz101 says:

          14 Jan14 January 12:26

          In the UK it’s also confusing as Hilton mainline hotels can often be hugely outdated and often very close to a new Doubletree which is seen as far superior. I’m looking at you Leeds city centre!

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